City demolishes historic skate park due to safety concerns

Above, skaters Jacob Allen, Shaun Milligan, Raven Milligan, and Jalen Short express their disappointment with the demolition of Pipeline Skate Park.

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Shaun Milligan and his son Raven stared into the pit that once was the Pipeline Skate Park. A half-dozen other onlookers stared in amazement or even disbelief as a couple children scrabbled amongst the debris.

The City of Kokomo had the 20-year-old fixture in Jackson Morrow Park demolished last week out of a concern for safety. According to Mayor Tyler Moore, the skate park had degraded to the point of being unsafe, prompting the demolition.

“We have been advised by our insurance carrier for about four years now to try and get it off our books,” said Moore.

Since the city already had contracted for the installation of a water line along Pipeline Drive, adjacent to the skate park, it asked the contractor to complete the demolition. The decision, and the demolition, left some in the skating community stunned.

“I'm disappointed,” said Shaun Milligan, who was among those who pressured the city under Mayor Matt McKillip to construct the park in 2005. “I’m disappointed in the city of Kokomo for not repairing it instead of just demolishing it.

“Do you know how much this park cost? It was a lot, some crazy number. It did need love. I'm not gonna lie, it needed repairs. That's sad to me, man. A piece of skateboard and BMX history just disappeared.”

The elbow pipe that made the skate park famous, now rubble.

Pipeline Skate Park was, indeed, historic in the skating world. It was the first park to feature an elbow tube, and it drew crowds when it first opened. But, in recent years, the park began to suffer from a lack of maintenance and some vandalism.

Still, it was loved by the community’s skaters, despite its remote location.

“I remember I would get dropped off here at like, 9 a.m., when my dad went to work,” said Jacob Allen, a skater in Pipeline’s heyday. “I spent all day here until my dad would pick me up when he got done. I'd have a cooler and everything, and I'd be sitting here looking for who's rolling up.”

The skate park was also home to the occasional musical performance. Nothing was ever officially scheduled there by the city, but that didn’t stop the skaters from putting on their own shows.

“It was like, two years ago, we brought a generator over here and put on a little show,” said Raven Milligan, a skater and musical performer who also is the nephew of local blues legend Mike Milligan. “It was a punk rock show. We had everyone just running around in the little bowl.”

And the park spawned legends. Shaun Milligan explained that A.J. Nelson – a Kokomo native who is now a major celebrity in the skating world – got his start at Pipeline. And Nelson remembers the skate park fondly.

Nelson was interviewed by Juice Magazine in 2021 about his start in Kokomo, and Pipeline was the center of the conversation.

“’I wonder if anyone has looped it?’ That’s still the question going around,” said Nelson. “But I don’t think it’s possible on a skateboard. That park is about 60 percent sandpaper now and three-inch black pipe coping. It will serve you, and you will get smoked on it. It’s got tight trannies and steep walls. It’s one of a kind. They don’t build parks like that anymore, unfortunately.”

Nelson disclosed that most of his techniques, from dropping in on a 12-foot vert ramp to knee slides to transition skating, were learned at the park.

“If it wasn't for this park right here, AJ Nelson would not be in San Diego right now,” said Shaun Milligan.

As some of the onlookers picked through debris for chunks of concrete with notable graffiti upon them – souvenirs of the lost attraction – others wondered what is next for the location. Mayor Moore said that speculation online has pointed to the addition of pickleball courts, but he denied that rumor.

“As for future plans there, we are still brainstorming on ideas,” said Moore. “It will be something interactive that more individuals in the community can use and enjoy. And no, there are no plans in the works to put pickleball courts there. I’m not sure where that came from.”